Nov 19, 2006

Last week was a very chaotic week. I enjoy a little chaos when I have the time and energy to savor it. However, when I have things to do and especially when I'm behind on the things I should do, chaos can be a real thorn in my side.

Regardless, I've been getting back on track and fighting off some of the chaos around the edges.

Soccer is Over!

My son's soccer season is over. He loves the hell out of soccer and we enjoy seeing him have fun, but this season has been a long one. It was literally extended and it was pretty tough too. He probably improved more than he has in any other season, but it was one of those very difficult improvements to behold as a parent. But today he had a tournament (2 games) and now its over. The family has Saturdays free again, and no practice on Thursdays. We really needed the break.

Zoe Coming Down with Something

Its that time of the year when one of the kids is sick almost every week. This weeks winner seems to be Zoe and she'll probably get to make a weekend trip to the doctor tomorrow. She was feeling fine early in the day and got some good playground time in between soccer games.

Mya has us Stressed

We still don't have any word from Mya's MRI results. So the drag out of not knowing is wearing on us a good bit. She was pretty active today and mostly in good health so that is great. Here she is pulling up on something. I hope she walks soon!

Mic Stand is here

I've been doing a lot more recording work. Working on an audio book and also working on some of my own writing. Mostly just trying to get lots of time talking and editing. I haven't done any work yet with editing music or intros or sound effects in yet. I need to do that soon. I have gotten a good deal of initial experience inserting animation, slide shows and a little video. The video has been hit or miss. I worked on a video for PPP, and it had to be a minute or better. My smart card on my camera stopped right at 60 seconds, so I thought I was in good shape. I uploaded it to YouTube and YouTube lost 3 seconds somehow, and so the video was rejected by PPP. I tried to edit it to insert an intro and an ending. I had successfully done this on another video, but not on a re-edit.

I fooled with it for about an hour and couldn't get the sound and video to re-synch back up and had to abandon it until I learn a little more. Hopefully, I can figure it out soon!

So today, I finally got around to swinging by the music store. I picked up a desktop microphone stand. You can kind of see it in this picture, or at least part of it. The thing is I was kind of stressed tonight(explain why in a second) and when I saw this picture, I started paying too much attention to the 'character lines' around my eyes. I'm not one to worry too much about how I look or anything. I'm happy with the way I look, I keep myself in shape and try to take care of me, but I have enough to do without stressing over my looks. So every now and then, something about me will change over time, but I won't notice it right away. So apparently I'm getting some lines or bags or whatever around my eyes. Maybe its not enough sleep or something or maybe I need to do more jaw exercises to tighten up my flabby jowls. :) Whatever, no big deal, I was just catching up with myself.

The Empire of the Bills Strikes Back

I've been super busy with a couple important projects the last couple weeks and the bills have been stacking up. I normally pay them (online) as soon as they come in, but they weren't due or anything and I just didn't have the time.

So I start plodding through the stack, which is far too respectable in size, and I finish entering all the bills into the system. I feel better for knocking something off the list. I fill out a survey with one of the merchants I work with and walk outside to drop it in the mail box where I discover a box full of mail.

Of course, there's a bill in there and so now I have to crank up the old laptop(where we keep the bill system) and plug that one in too. Then I move on to the next thing on the list, tracking down the daycare receipts to submit for the dependent care reimbursement (pain in the butt) account so that we can save 15-30% on our taxes for that amount. Its worth the savings but is always a pain.

I don't find the receipt nor the form I'm looking for, and I'm putting away and filling other papers from bills, to the kids school work, to you name it out of this big mountain of crap that's piled up on the island in our kitchen.

Then I see it. There are two bills that got shuffled into the wrong stack and they are about half way down. I suffer a gut roll and see that one is 5 days over due(student loan) and one is due tonight(credit card). I hate paying bills late, especially when I have the money. :) These two slipped by somehow and that just aggravates me all the more.

So I crank up the old computer one more time. I pay the credit card. I try to call the company about the late student loan, but they aren't open on Saturdays so I add that to the list of things I have to do on Monday.

Vitamins and Free Radicals

So I finish the bills and I'm tidying up some loose ends. I take my vitamins (multi-vitamin, B12, and Ginko Biloba, plus a baby aspirin to keep my hear in tip top shape - last night I had 2 beers so I rotate on aspirin and beer).

I head down stairs and that's when I upload pictures from the day and notice my eye bags. Then I start thinking, 'OK, Brett, you are going to live forever, but you don't want to end up looking like the crypt keeper or whatever that skeletons name was.

So then I start looking around to see what the latest marvels of modern bio science might have to offer.

I pick up on the topic of Free Radicals and how they basically attack your cells trying to tear them apart and steal your electrons, which sounds vaguely familiar from Advanced Chemistry in high school, but that's almost 17 years ago so its a little vague and I was never good at integrating Chemistry and Biology.

So I come across this stuff called Proleva with the L tilted funny in the logo and I start figuring out that this stuff is supposed to donate electrons to create some sort of barrier around your cells.

So this Proleva is a supplement made from fruit extracts like grape seeds, green tea, various berries and a few other items. Basically one of the anti-oxidant cocktails with a electron donor kicker.

So I start thinking, OK maybe now is the time when you should start figuring out just how to execute this plan to live longer. I can't just expect modern science to hurry up and figure out a way to clone me a new body yet, after all I don't even have Michael J Fox's money and that's not even enough to help him.

Proleva costs about $60 a month or you can go for the value option and get it for $260 for 6 months, which doesn't seem to be too much to live forever.

I mean just how much would you pay to push yourself in the longevity direction?

Don't get me wrong taking Proleva isn't going to make me live forever, but with proper diet and exercise, and other vitamins and a lower stressed life, and maybe if I take up Yoga again (met a really pissed off Yoga instructor this week, who seems to be pretty funny over at Comedy SoapBox), well then maybe I can preserve my carcass long enough in the manner to which I've become accustomed to enjoying my carcass such that when modern science does find the additional fruit extracts necessary to keep my ticker ticking like an atomic clock, well then I'll be ready.

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Gabbles(comments):

Seing that you are interested in video editing, I am taking on me to suggest you a web site you have to try. It is called Youswitch.tv. You can do your own video by switching between 4 cameras of a live show. It is a lot of fun. It is free.

You will find a song by Jonas and next week, Roger Hodgson from Supertramp will be there with "Give a little bit". Try it, you will like it.

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NaNoWriMo

This year I'm writing a book, currently title, Infected with Time as part of the National Novel Writing Month event. I'm utilizing two of my favorite software tools to write the book, Dragon Naturally Speaking and MindManager. Wish Me Luck, as the novel gets more organized (writing and editing as I go) I'll start publishing chapters so that you can follow along.